Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Abolishing Slavery and its Contemporary Forms

Forms of Slavery
27
exploitation is a contemporary form of slavery and constitutes a serious violation of human
rights.”
147
Reporting to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-sixth session in February
2000, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women highlighted in her report “the fact that
trafficking in women is one component of a larger phenomenon of trafficking in persons, including
both male and female adults and children. Nonetheless, she would like to highlight the women-
specific character of many violations of human rights committed during the course of traffick-
ing.”
148
2. Trafficking in children
84. According to article 3(c) of the Trafficking Protocol, the recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered trafficking even
without any evidence of force or coercion. As stated above, “exploitation” is defined in the Traf-
ficking Protocol as “exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation,
forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of
organs”.
149
While remaining undefined in international law, the term “other forms of sexual
exploitation” can be understood to include the participation of persons under 18 in the production
of pornography.
150
In addition, with regard to the definition of trafficking in article 3, the travaux
preparatoires state that “where illegal adoption amounts to a practice similar to slavery as defined
in article 1, paragraph (d), of the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave
Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, it will also fall within the scope of the [Traf-
ficking] Protocol.”
151
Therefore, “any institution or practice whereby a child or young person
under the age of 18 years, is delivered by either or both of his natural parents or by his guardian
to another person, whether for reward or not, with a view to the exploitation of the child or young
person or of his labour”
152
falls within the scope of the Trafficking Protocol. 
85. Children who are recruited to work away from home but within the borders of their own
country, in contravention of article 1(d) of the Supplementary Convention, are considered by
many to have been “trafficked”, notably when they are removed from their community of origin
to another where they are more isolated and vulnerable to abuse, and where their labour is
exploited for someone else’s gain, whatever the nature of their income-generating activity.
153
146
Report of the World Conference on Human Rights, chapter III, section I, para. 18, United Nations document
A/CONF.157/24 (Part 1) (1993); see also Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, adopted by Gen-
eral Assembly resolution 48/104 of 20 December 1993, art. 2 (including “trafficking in women” in its definition of vio-
lence against women); Radhika Coomaraswamy, Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its caus-
es and consequences, United Nations document E/CN.4/1997/47 (1997) (discussing the causes of trafficking in women).
147
Report of the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery on its twenty-third session, Recommenda-
tions 3 and 4, United Nations document E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/14 (1998). The Working Group cited many instruments in
its recommendations, including the slavery and forced labour conventions. The Commission on Human Rights also re-
gards trafficking as a form of violence against women and a violation of their human rights that must accordingly be
eliminated. See Commission on Human Rights resolution 1994/45, United Nations document E/CN.4/1994/132, p. 140.
148
Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Ms Radhika
Coomaraswamy, on trafficking in women, women’s migration and violence against women, supra note 94, para. 1.
149
Trafficking Protocol, supra note 28, art. 3(a).
150
See note 113. See also the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Chil-
dren, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, adopted by General Assembly resolution 54/263 of 25 May 2000 (not
yet entered into force), art. 2(c) (defining “child pornography” as “any representation, by whatever means, of a child
engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a child for primarily
sexual purposes”).
151
 Travaux preparatoires, supra note 109, para. 66.
152
Supplementary Convention, supra note 20, art. 1(d).
153
In a statement by Anti-Slavery International to the twenty-sixth session of the Working Group on Contempo-
rary Forms of Slavery in June 2001, “Trafic des enfants en Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre: une réalité persistante”, the
organization invited members of the Working Group to comment on intra-country cases, saying: “Nous sollicitons le
Groupe de travail également à examiner si le terme ‘traite’ doit également s’appliquer aux cas d’enfants transférés de
leurs lieux d’origine (et leurs familles natales) à d’autres lieux dans le même pays, toujours aux fins d’exploitation
économique abusive ou d’exploitation sexuelle.” The Working Group did not, however, adopt a comment on this issue.

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